Naboo Royal Guard - TVC - Basic (VC83)

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We feel slightly anxious that the collecting fan base may not think too much about the brand new Naboo Royal Guard. You might feel indifferent about him, but we want to make it known that it’s one of the stars of The Phantom Menace wave of The Vintage Collection. The early prototype samples in photographs sort of put collectors off a bit. His eyebrows looked way too thick and the face sculpt didn’t seem to resonate with fans. But the final production action figure is a tremendous success by our standards and we couldn’t be more thrilled to finally have this upgrade in our collection. (We hope for a ton more future running changes at some point.) Until Hasbro decides to work ball-jointed hips into this sculpt, this will remain the definitive version of the Naboo Royal Guard. You’ll love this figure, just as we do because it’s a figure that is authentic and accurate (for the first time in the basic figure line) and it is a perfect action figure just in time for the release of The Phantom Menace in 3D. This prominent Episode I Star Wars character had a ton of screen time in the film, but interestingly was mostly off in the distance blasting battle droids and making a clear path for Queen Amidala to search for the viceroy. We will need many different types for our collection, so Hasbro if you’re “listening” please ensure that you bang these out like it’s 1999 please!

An essentially flawless design, the Naboo Royal Guard is a most excellent design. His upper “body glove” (for lack of a better description) is finely ribbed and fitted and looks like it is designed from some sort of flexible rubber. In the film, they functioned as blast-dampening vests in battle, so we imagine some sort of rubber was indeed used to manufacture them. In the grooves of the ribbing Hasbro has added a dark wash. it looks absolutely fantastic. His boots, although not ribbed are colored in a similar way. In between are bright red pants. We think they are a shade or two too bright, but don’t interpret that as a complaint because when we compared this action figure to the Blu-ray scenes that they appear in and there is very little to worry about as far as there being a huge disparity between the actual color of the costume and the action figure. Hasbro has designated this figure as a “Character Debut – Never Before Offered As A Figure!” but they are incorrect. In 1999’s Episode I line they released the Naboo Royal Guard, albeit with darker skin and facial hair. Interestingly, other figures like Queen Amidala and Quinlan Vos do not sport the sticker despite their respective iterations actually being available for the first time. The Naboo Royal Guard looks simply fantastic. Hasbro cleaned up the issues with the prototype and the production sample just shines.

These soldiers are actually called Palace Guards and are part of the Royal Naboo Security Forces, commonly stationed in the Royal Pace of Theed. Hasbro has ensured that they replciated every detail of this soldier into the action figure. The Naboo Royal Guard comes with a removable helmet. Trying to replicate the colorfully pearly look of their helmets, Hasbro tries their best by adding stripes of varying metallic color to the top of the helmet. It doesn’t completely work, but it’s good enough for a figure in this scale. We have seen them add pearly detail to other figures in the past, so we’re slightly surprised why they went with the deco plan instead of something else. But the helmet is perfectly sized and it doesn’t look the slightest bit too large on his head. Conversely, his head isn’t too small to fit the helmet in the least. Hasbro also designs an all-new blaster for this figure and a functioning holster on his left hip accepts it graciously. Despite the figure’s limiting swivel hips, we have been successful in recreating some cool movie-specific poses with him. In other words, the figure has more flexibility than you might imagine. The Naboo Royal Guard is an incredible action figure, it’s just that we need an army of them in order for them to be any good in dioramas and what have you. Hasbro is certainly finding ways to successfully make Episode I palatable to collectors. Naboo Royal Guard is evidence of this.